Strange Feeling of Rejection
by Xiaine
Summary: "It's never happened before, so why now? Zoro won't hold my hand." First ZoLu fic. I made Luffy sound smart *shot*


Disclaimer: Obviously not my characters : D They belong to Eichiro Oda 3 Enjoy guys.

This city had meat. I was sure of it. I was desperate, almost to the brink of exploding with rage because I hadn't had any for a whole day. Sanji told me up front that we were clear out of meat. I immediately ordered for us to dock at the closest city. We came to a small island that had a small city with a population smaller than Logue Town. I instantly became amazed by the shiny towers that were placed at the back of the islands, lit with fire at the tops. Once we docked, I jumped off my usual seat and eagerly ran towards the center of the ship.

"Everyone! Come down! We have to decide who goes where." Everyone was moving at their own pace, a pace much too slow for me. I tapped my foot impatiently and frowned. "Today?" I shouted. Nami was the first to come up behind me and punch my head. I held it and moved to the side of her.

"Don't rush us! It's too damn early for you to be yelling like that."

"What time is it?"

"Eleven. Now what is it?"

"Obviously about the city! We're going to go restock." I grinned and pointed to the small city. "We're going to get more meat!"

Nami sighed. "There are other things we can spend our money on. Let's remember, we're pretty broke."

"Well we have to stop being broke already and get more money! Besides, if we don't, how will we get any meat?"

"That's because most of the money goes all on you, dumb ass!" Nami screamed in my ear and slapped my head again. It didn't hurt. The rest of the crew stood opposite of us. They were looking at the new piece of land we had come across.

"So, we're stopping here for the day or just restocking?" Usopp said looking towards the towers. He was marveling at them like I had been. I had to look at them again. I had then forgot what we were even doing. Nami spoke up in my place and explained the situation. She revised what I had said but with more bigger terms and less talk about the meat. I frowned when hearing her groan out that we needed more meat. The last thing she addressed. Sanji lit up a cigarette and gave Nami and smile.

"Ah, Nami, of course we'll do all those things! We'll do it as quick as possible if it pleases you!" He swooned, heart shaped clouds rising from the lit end of his cigarette. Robin giggled a bit to herself, I guess she was just happy we made it through the storm the night before. Zoro on the other hand put his palm against his forehead and shook his head.

"I still say that's pretty pathetic." Sanji twitched and turned towards him. As always, the two began to argue. Robin stood in the back giggling again. I didn't mind it too much myself, since it was almost an everyday thing. I turned to the city again. My sights were set on getting the meat, then checking those towers out a bit more closely.

Not too long after we decided who went where, we all began to leave the ship, besides Nami and Chopper. Zoro and I teamed up, while Robin, sanji and Usopp went another way. It had been a while since I had gotten any alone time with Zoro. We were normally doing our own thing, and when it was time to fight, he had to go some other way, while I took care of the biggest threat.

It was nice for a change to finally settle down and just have fun. As we walked along the pavement, Zoro remained silent. I didn't mind since Zoro wasn't exactly the talkative type. We had come to the luxury stores and souvenir shops. Zoro stopped when seeing some swords in a store window. I followed suit and glanced at the slick metal weapons. He pinched his chin, obviously now in deep thought. I wondered if he was going to buy himself extra swords, though his worked fine to me. But I wasn't the swordsman here.

"You're gonna buy one?" I asked, still unable to hold in my curiosity. There was a long pause before Zoro answered.

"Nah, I was just checking them out. Pretty nice, but they don't seem to fit my taste." I didn't understand what it was about Zoro and his swords. I'm guessing one had to catch his eye and seriously engross him into buying it. I didn't know how he chose swords, but he seemed like the picky type. I just went with that and kept my mouth shut. I had a feeling my brain would start hurting if I asked any more questions. We continued on down the path and found a clothing shop. It was okay in my opinion, and Zoro wasn't the type that was interested in clothing. Nami sort of took care of that for us. We moved on to the next building. It was just my luck to find a deli just across from the clothing store.

"Zoro! Meat!" I shouted and ran my way over to the deli's door. I could smell the delicious meat. I rushed inside, not bothering to wait on Zoro, he was walking way to slow. It was a little different from the other meat places I've visited. This one had all the meat laid out on the front counter, no glass was there to keep hungry hands or anything of the like off of it. I saw beef, steak, ham, pork and many more delicacies. I wanted to touch them but the man up front was glaring straight at me. "How much for a pound of each?" I asked eagerly, licking my lips. The front door jingled from being opened. Zoro walked in and sighed.

"Don't go crazy, alright? Ero-Cook's already taking care of the job, so be mindful of the money we have with us." I could barely hear him. Not that I wanted to ignore Zoro or anything, I just kept my focus on the food, only because I was starving. It couldn't be helped unless I ate. The man had given us the prices for each kind of meat. I grimaced when hearing that the beef was 10 Belli a pound. I didn't want to upset Zoro, because I know he was trying to tell me NOT to get a whole lot. I knew that expensive meat would have to wait, or Sanji had to get them. I was trying not to pick every single one, but it was hard to be picky. I bit down on my thumb and groaned.

"Oi, Zoro, I don't know which one to choose!" I whined. He stood next to me and examined our choices. He then pointed to three. The man then took out the ones Zoro had pointed to and laid them out on the counter behind the displays.

"How many pounds?"

"5 for each."

"Alright." I felt my mouth water and my heart jump from excitement. Zoro crossed his arms and watched the man divide the huge chunks of meat into the right amounts. I wanted to hug Zoro for allowing me to get 5 pounds of three kinds of meat. Zoro paid the man so that a way I didn't handle the money. I was already bad with most things, so I didn't mind. I watched them exchange Belli and the three packets of meat. I held my hands out to hold the three packs. Zoro handed them to me, but told me not to eat them yet. I pouted, but then thought of Sanji making something really delicious with them, then smiled and agreed. We left out of the deli right after and continued further up the road. I had the packets in one hand and my other hand was free. I was so happy that I felt the need to hug Zoro. But normally, I'd do it with two hands. I didn't like using only one, so I didn't hug him. Although, it was obvious we could at least hold hands. Zoro's arm lifelessly hung by his side. I peeked over at it a couple times to see if he were going to put it in his pocket. When he didn't, I grabbed Zoro's hand and pushed my fingers in between Zoro's. I squeezed his hand hard. Zoro jolted and snatched his hand away. I looked up at him, surprised he didn't want to hold hands.

"N-not here!" He whispered loudly. I blinked as we kept walking. My chest began to hurt, though I didn't know why. My stomach began to churn and I wasn't sure why. My heart began to feel heavy, and I was oblivious to the reason. My body began to shiver, and it confused me as to "what was wrong?" Why? Zoro didn't want to hold hands? Was it me or was he just shy? I couldn't come up with a reason that would at least make me feel better. I was very loss for words and let my arm fall limp beside me. For some reason, I just felt pain.

We ended up buying more booze. Zoro couldn't help himself since he had been with out it for some days. Back on the ship, Nami and Chopper greeted us and searched our bags for the new items. Nami was surprised we didn't buy as much meat as she thought we would. The others also came back. Usopp had found a tool shop that sold all the things he needed for his inventions. Sanji made sure to buy as much food as we needed, this included a huge amount of my favorite thing. Robin had done very little shopping, but managed to get Nami and her a pair of clothes. Nami was happy with this and thanked Robin for her kindness.

We set sail once we got ourselves settled back in. I remained on my seat, still contemplating why Zoro rejected me. I felt as though maybe I was taking it a bit far and I was worrying too much. But my heart was just very heavy. I stared at the hand I used to hold Zoro's, the hand that was rejected. His reaction replayed in my mind. Why did he do that? And why was I thinking about it so much? I held my head and grumbled.

"It hurts…" I managed to say under my breath. All the noises and voices behind me were all muffled. I hit my head a couple of times, though they were light taps from my palms. I exhaled slowly. That seemed to help at least somewhat.

"Luffy! We're setting sail now!" I heard Zoro call out as he pulled the anchor out of the water. I gave him a thumbs up, unable to face him. I just felt under the weather was all. Merry steadily cruised along with the calm waves. I watched the water part before her as she moved along. I had to get off my seat. I was feeling queasy. I hopped onto the deck and wobbled my way over to the other side. Usopp was busy mixing chemicals together, while Nami was tending to the tangerines. I opened the door and walked down the hall. I had to sit down, maybe even sleep to get my mind off things. I made it to my hammock and climbed inside. I laid there on my stomach and sighed. I closed my eyes, but couldn't sleep.

The door opened and I opened my eyes. Zoro. Either he was tired, left something in here, or he just came to see me. I went with the second one.

"Why are you laying down? You sick?" He asked and walked over to me. I was surprised he had asked. Seeing as though he rejected me.

"I've never been sick. And I'm not now. Just tired." I replied and turned my head away from him. Zoro moved on to the other side and stared at me.

"Well that's new. You being tired before nightfall? Please. Something's bothering you." He stated. I frowned and turned away again, facing the door.

"Shut up, I'm just tired okay?" I didn't like how Zoro knew what I was thinking. He walked in front of me and glared.

"Just say yes. I know how you think, Luffy. What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong, idiot."

"Well its obvious something is. You're getting defensive." I sat up and pinched both Zoro's cheeks.

"Idiot! There's nothing wrong! I'm just tired and hungry." Zoro returned the favor by doing the same to me.

"You're lying, you lil' brat!" I let go of Zoro's cheeks since his pinches hurt.

"Ow! Let go!" He then let go and pulled me off the hammock. I flapped my arms and then clung once my feet were the only things keeping me connected to the hammock. Zoro kept tugging anyways and I was soon free from the nets. Zoro sat down and cradled me. His arms were warm. I tensed and looked up at him, now even more confused now. I started to feel a bit of fluttering in my chest, a slight happiness, a bit of joy, a ting of delight. I gripped Zoro's shirt, unable to make myself let go. "Zoro is… holding me." I said to myself.

"So?" He answered. I nuzzled his chest. Heartbeat. It was beating pretty fast. Nervous? Are you nervous?

"Zoro didn't hold my hand today. Why are you hugging me now?" I felt my face curl into a frown. Distaste in my mouth from his hand quickly pulling away from mine. The thought sickened me again. His arms held tighter. His heart, racing.

"I told you before, not in public, dumb ass. I…" His voice trailed off. I couldn't see his face, but I knew he was blushing. I began to smile. "It's embarrassing when people stare at you. Any other time I don't mind." He seemed to have trouble saying that. It just made me all the more happier. Zoro was just shy. The simplest answer. How could I have forgotten? I remembered now that Zoro had told me when we confessed that he didn't want to do anything romantic in public, and holding hands was apart of that. I had no idea why I doubted so much, why I thought of the worst possible reason why Zoro did that. "Sorry if I made you think different. I thought you remembered."

I snuggled up against him, listening to the fast pace of the fist-sized organ that kept him alive.

"I'm stupid then. I thought you didn't like me or something." I laughed a bit and erected myself so that away I could see Zoro's face. He was red. I began to laugh even more. He glared at me and gritted his teeth.

"What are you laughing at?" He asked and pinched my nose. It wasn't hard like when he pinched my cheeks. "You're the idiot that assumed!"

"Yeah but, Zoro's all red!" I grinned. Zoro didn't have a come back. He merely huffed and kept his eyes turned another way. I went ahead and kissed his lips. It was a light kiss, though Zoro instantly pressed his lips onto mind and soon we were tonguing the other. It didn't last that long. I wiped my mouth and Zoro kept me in a tight hug. I wrapped my arms around his body and gripped the back of his shirt. It was comfortable. It was nice. It was ideal. Zoro had the habit of cradling me like this. He did it, for I don't know what reason. Not that I minded, nor cared why. I found it funny. I could sit like this all day. I'm sure Zoro thought otherwise. He couldn't keep himself like this if someone were to come in. It made me chuckle a little, Zoro flinching from the sound. He grumbled, he didn't like this sudden chuckle since he was a little more than embarrassed. He didn't bother asking what I was chuckling about. He felt he would just get even more shy.

I had come to realize that these moments with Zoro, only I could see. No one else knew of this tender side. Sure Zoro had his moments around the others, but these moments no one else saw. It made me feel special. Ha, in some ways I wanted everyone to know. Obviously, it was better to leave these times alone with us.

Worst way to end a fic TT^TT I'm so sorry.


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